Electric and plug-in hybrid car owners will have to pay £5 to charge their vehicles at motorway services from next week, it has been announced.

Ecotricity, which is the sole provider for around 300 charging posts up and down the UK's motorway network, said it will abolish free top-ups from Monday 11 July and demand a flat-fee each time a driver wants to use a rapid charger for 20 minutes.

The payment scheme could be a hammer blow to the growing alternative fuel car market with plug-in hybrid drivers no longer benefiting from cheaper-than-fuel electric charging on motorways.

Free no more: Electric and plug-in hybrid cars will now have to pay £5 for a 20 minute charging session at any of the 300 Ecotricity posts up at motorway service stations up and down the country

Ecotricity said it will be rolling out the payment scheme at all 300 charging locations on the 'Electric Highway' network from next week.

Electric and hybrid car owners will now have to download the firm's app - telling drivers where the nearest unused rapid charger is - and pay £5 for the 20 minutes the vehicle is plugged in.

The scheduled switch-over to the pay-to-use system will be completed by 5 August, though Ecotricity customers will still be able to use the motorway chargers for free.

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According to Ecotricity, it has so far provided 30million miles and £2.5million worth of free travel for around 40,000 members who own plug-in vehicles.

But as more people are turning to alternative fuel cars - the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders said 46,000 have already been purchased in 2016 alone accounting for 3.2 per cent of all new-car sales in the first six months of the year - the provider said it had become overwhelmed, with usage of its free motorway chargers trebling last year.

According to the website Motoring Research, an email was issued to members ahead of an official statement on Thursday, saying: 'The combination of more cars on the road and faster charging means we’re now delivering two million miles of clean driving each month – all powered from the wind and sun. That’s a great result. It’s also a growing cost.

'And to keep pace with demand, we need to build more electricity pumps – at existing and new locations.

'So the time has come for us to charge – for charging.

'We’ve taken a lot of feedback from EV drivers in order to arrive at the right pricing model.

'We’ve decided that a simple flat fee of a fiver for a 20 minute fast charge strikes the right balance.'

However, many have questioned if the balance is right, with a single 20 minute charge only offering sufficient power to run some plug-in hybrid vehicles for up to 15 miles on electric-only driving.

Motoring Research said a £5 charge would provide a Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV - the nation's top-selling alternative fuel vehicle of 2015 and 2016 so far - with 15 to 20 miles of electric-only range.

That distance could be covered by the same vehicle if the driver added just £2 of petrol.

Electric models, like the Nissan Leaf (pictured charging), will be able to cover around 50 to 60 miles on one 20 minute rapid charge, but plug-in hybrid cars will only be able to run in pure electric mode for far shorter distances

Ecotricity's official statement said: 'The usage trebled in 2015 and it has been so successful in encouraging the uptake of electric cars that it is now necessary to start charging for the service in order to maintain and grow the network.

'A rapid charge of up to twenty minutes will cost just £5, significantly less than the equivalent cost of a petrol or diesel car.'

Zip-Map, which provides information about electric vehicle charging, said plug-in hybrid owners are now less likely to be inclined to pay for the use of the charge points when it only adds a short distance of emissions-free range.

It said: 'The result will see PHEVs driven on the motorway become less green and reduce the effectiveness as a way to reduce CO2 emissions.'

But it added that the switch to paid-for-charging will mean many plug-in hybrid drivers will no longer hog the free-to-use rapid chargers to replenish their batteries at no cost, freeing them up for pure-electric drivers who rely on using them to complete long-distance journeys.

Full electric models, like the best-selling Nissan Leaf, benefit far more from the rapid chargers. A single 20 minute session will add approximately 50 to 60 miles of range to a pure-electric vehicle, though that estimated distance will deplete at a faster rate when the car is driven at constant high-speeds on motorways.

Many of these cars will require a charge to reach a location, but have until now faced being blocked by plug-in hybrid owners taking advantage of the free supply of electricity.

An Ecotricty spokesperson told us: 'Different models of plug in car will recharge at different rates, however we looked at the market, the price that other electric car networks were charging, the equivalent costs of refuelling petrol and diesel cars on the motorway and came to the conclusion that £5 per charge was a fair price to pay.'

Ecotricity has offered free charging at motorway services for the last five years, claiming to have provided 30 million miles and £2.5 million worth of free travel for around 40,000 members who own plug-in vehicles

Just last week, the AA predicted that electric car sales would soar by 2020 as motorists overcame misconceptions about running costs.

AA president Edmund King said: 'We think that the EV revolution is about to take off and we want to help consumers understand the benefits of low cost, low emission driving and to show them it is accessible and affordable.

'Per mile driven an EV is five times cheaper than the average petrol car and carries no vehicle excise duty.'

While this is most certainly the case if you charge your car at home - especially if you take advantage of using electricity at non-peak hours - it will no longer be the true for those regularly relying on charging up at motorway service stations.

Tesla drivers will continue to be able to access the company’s supercharger network at no cost.

Other issues with Ecotricity's app-based system have also been raised, including how drivers without a smartphone will be able to use the network and if there will be restrictions due to the poor levels of phone coverage associated with motorway service stations.